Moving on
I’ve always been something of a minimalist. When someone walks into my space for the first time, they ‘ll often ask, “Where’s the furniture? Or, “Did you just move in? When my sister Deborah was asked years ago what to get me as a gift, she told the asker, “Wrap up a concept.” It’s true, I really don’t like clutter. I like open space around me. I think better that way and I’m happier traveling lightly through the world.
Nonetheless when preparing to move out of my New York City apartment, I still found myself confronting piles of things I’d kept… my picture ID card from Pineapple Dance Studios (defunct since about 1990), 2 flowered mugs given to me by a student, a file filled with letters and cards, and of course, Puppy. I needed to decide: What to bring? What to let go of?
I know Marie Kondo said, only keep what sparks joy. Similarly, my sister C – who is more minimalist than me said – if it makes you sad, let go of it. But there’s something else at play for me – I worry that I’ll lose the memory if I lose the object.
First to go was the ID card, I can’t explain why that went because it had survived at least 3 prior moves; it just was time. Snip, snip. I cut it up and threw it out. Did I need to cut it up? Yes – not because of any fear of identity theft, but as a bit of ceremoniously letting go.
The two flowered mugs were part of a set of four. I had gotten rid of two that were chipped several years ago but realized the other 2 could go as well. I no longer really remember the name of the student who gave them to me and I’m really not a flowered cup person. And while I know Marie Kondo said it was cheating to give your sister that grey sweater you didn’t want (I’m paraphrasing – haven’t read her book in years) I knew someone who would enjoy them, and so, I passed them along.
I do like finding new homes for things. Discovering “Buynothing.org” was a big help. After joining your local group you can post items – big and small. A dresser that wouldn’t be making the trip with me went to someone who was setting up their first apartment. 20 Mason jars found new homes as well. I’ve always had a lot of Mason jars for beans and grains, but I couldn’t imagine packing them in boxes and sending them to storage in Pittsburgh. And I’m willing to bet that another RCE member will have some empty jars to give me when the time comes.
Stuffed, furry Puppy – just celebrated his 10th birthday. He’s coming along. The story of Puppy I’ll save for another time, but enough to say he didn’t go to storage. He moved out of the NYC apartment with me, and now resides in my temporary quarters with my sister in Albany.
The letters and postcards were the hardest. As moving day arrived, I still hadn’t fully sifted through them. They came along to Albany. For two days, I sat on the floor of my room reading and sorting. But eventually got the pile down to half its size. Hard, yes, but giving up some fragments of the past feels like it is leaving space for the future. Clearing a path for me to go forward.
And that, I think, is a good thing.
–Judy Trupin, Founding Member & Future Resident of RCE, May 1, 2023
Judy is a yoga teacher, poet, and ESOL teacher/teacher educator.
Inspired by Bhutan
After hearing a talk in January by Tshewang Wangchuk, the Executive Director of the Bhutan Foundation, I was interested to learn more – and the more I learn, the more impressed I am. Learning about Bhutan, I’ve found inspiration for our work as RCE.
Bhutan has been a pioneer in sustainable living and harmony with the natural world for over 50 years and the initiator of the idea of happiness as a key indicator of progressive development.
Gross National Happiness, or “development with values” was an idea first promulgated by the then teenaged King in the 1970s, later enshrined in the constitution in 2008, and presented to the UN in 2012 where it now shapes ongoing world happiness reporting.
The 4 pillars of GNH are: Conservation of the Environment, Equitable and Sustainable Development, Good Governance, and Preservation of Culture. Bhutan has pursued those values carefully, consistently, and with inspiring success.
Some examples: Bhutan is carbon negative, exporting 80% of its hydroelectric energy and where that grid is not accessible, providing a rural electrification program that brought solar power to the most remote citizens to reduce the need for wood burning.
And they use a run-of-the-river system which requires the preservation of watersheds in natural forest.
Forest preservation is guaranteed by their constitution which protects 60% of their land from development and they have worked extensively to protect wildlife and support endangered species. GNH has helped Bhutan manage conflict between Yak herders whose livelihood can be threatened by predation. In some cases, disease took a far greater toll on herds than any predator, so they brought veterinary services to the affected communities and with larger, stronger herds, natural predation was a reduced threat. Further, community-based compensation and herd insurance programs, funded by revenues from eco-tourism and non-timber forest products, are transforming snow leopards into an economic asset for everyone—including herders.
In 2021, Bhutan’s Covid response was the envy of the world. When the first vaccines became available, they vaccinated their eligible population in under 2 weeks, even in the remotest areas. Equally swiftly they addressed food insecurity with cooperative agriculture and food distribution plans in the face of the sudden loss of income from tourism.
An ancient Buddhist monarchy and a sociocratic co-housing ecovillage near Pittsburgh may be quite different but RCEs Vision of “a world where people value connections with each other and nature, […] human life contributes to the life of the planet,” and “a community [that] embraces ecologically creative living where people and nature thrive” embodies some of those pillars of happiness. And as we shape our community into the next phases of construction and move in (and work on our OKRs!), we can look at how Bhutan implements its programs with public participation and using metrics that capture the many interrelated factors important for creating the conditions of happiness. Along with the 4 pillars, they have (at a recent count) 9 domains, 38 subindexes, 72 indicators and 151 variables to describe and analyze the happiness of the Bhutanese people and focus attention where it is needed.
Bhutan shows us some ways that consistent values, moral leadership, and thoughtful implementation informed by good metrics can lead to uncommon creativity, success, and, yes, happiness.
-Julie Burch, Founding Member & Future Resident of RCE, April 17, 2023
Hi! My name is Kristi and I’m a Founding member of the Rachel Carson EcoVillage. I participate in a planning group (our term for committee) that focuses on attracting new members and serving the individuals who make the decision to join the EcoVillage as Explorer members. Our planning group uses the acronym MOPG (membership and outreach planning group) and needless to say MOPG is busy right now and I want to give you an idea of what we’ve been up to.
MOPG aims to get the word out about Rachel Carson EcoVillage (RCE). We are reaching people through Facebook, the national US Cohousing website, making presentations to all kinds of groups and talking with local media. We have an ambassador kit for members to use when they are with their friends, family and networks and you’ll see our attractive fliers posted on bulletin boards all over the greater Pittsburgh area.
Our project manager, Stefani Danes, has hosted an more than 50 introductory sessions on Zoom and there is a video created by students from Chatham University that helps us to envision where we will be living and what the surroundings will look like.
It’s not hard to promote the EcoVillage because it’s such an exciting and amazing project to be a part of!
Two reasons that come to mind for me are the bucolic location that includes the opportunity to reside on a campus which is wholly focused on sustainability; I also have roots in this area. In fact you’ll pass by the high school that I attended when you turn onto Ridge Road to get to the campus. And although the area has changed a lot since 1976, this part of southwestern Pennsylvania with its natural setting of rolling hills, woodlands, valleys and creeks still grounds me like nowhere else.
And then there’s the opportunity to be in community with like minded souls. It’s hard to imagine not wanting to live in a community of people who value human connection and want to engage in enriching one another’s lives. In doing so we can come together to learn, to share, to teach and to do right by the planet and carry on the work exemplified by Rachel Carson.
A few days ago I was in my family room and caught sight of a bald eagle soaring way above the treeline against a beautiful blue sky. I called to my daughter, Molly, so that she could see it too.
My three kids are used to me stopping conversations to glance skyward because a bird has caught my eye. I come by it naturally – my mother was the same. I grew up listening to bird sound recordings that were always playing in the background as she increased her knowledge base of bird songs.
Native Pittsburghers are proud, loyal and welcoming and we want you to love our region as much as we do. We also acknowledge that Pittsburgh has had its share of strife and struggle. Pittsburgh is extremely proud of Rachel Carson and her legacy is very apparent in the area. Molly interned at the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, PA when she was an undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh. And I think Pittsburgh has done a good job of acknowledging and recognizing the work of Rachel Carson.
If you haven’t visited southwestern PA yet we’d love to show you the land and help you arrange a visit. MOPG can help with accommodations and transportation if you’d like to come and see for yourself where we’ll be living. We have a concierge team that will provide a tour of the university campus, some of the local attractions and amenities and most importantly help you to envision how you might make the transition. We are a creative and resourceful bunch and we’d love to meet you on Zoom and then hopefully in person.
Come, join us. Let’s continue the work.
– Kristi Karsh, Founding Member & future resident of RCE , April 8, 2023
Creating Your “Blue Zone”—Living a Happy, Healthy Life Past 100
Hello, my name is Dr. Sarah Vick and I’m a Family Medicine Physician and member of Rachel Carson EcoVillage. Not surprisingly, the biggest driver sending patients to my clinic is poor physical or mental health. Perhaps their diabetes is out of whack, or they have recurring headaches, or they can’t shake a feeling of loneliness, or there is something preventing them from living the fullest life available to them. Regardless of why they come to see me, the root question is inevitably, “how do I feel better?”
Historically, the US medical system has focused almost exclusively on the treatment of disease, rather than the maintenance of healthfulness. But now, after 20 years of practice, I’m finally seeing a fundamental shift in how we consider human health. Doctors are starting to acknowledge that there is a spectrum of wellness, just like there is a spectrum of sickness. Starting with your Ideal Self, there are stages that range from “not quite right” to “vulnerable to disease, ” all before an illness like Hypertension or Diabetes or COVID actually affects you.
So how do we move from the spectrum of illness to the spectrum of wellness, or even to our Ideal Self? What things can we control that will increase our wellness and resiliency? And what does co-housing have to do with it?
I’ll give you a hint….
“Blue Zone” is a term coined by Dr. Dan Buettner, a physician-scientist fascinated with these questions. His original research identified five global longevity hotspots whose members disproportionately lived healthfully into their 100’s: Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy and Nicoya, Costa Rica. These small towns share many things in common, but one of the most critical is social connection and how members experience their community. Yes, they have strong social support networks and yes, they are actively involved in the life of their community, but it is more than that. You could think of the “community” as having an identity of its own, and each member has critical responsibilities that support that community identity. Americans tend to pride themselves on autonomy and self-sufficiency, but the Blue Zone research shows that interdependency (and the sense of purpose that comes from being depended upon by others) is one of the golden tickets for a long and healthy life for individuals and for the group. This specific type of social structure has been shown to reduce depression and loneliness, increase happiness and well-being, and even reduce or reverse chronic disease.
I am drawn to co-housing for many reasons, but one reason is because I recognize similarities between Rachel Carson Ecovillage and the Blue Zones. Making decisions together for the well-being of the group? Indoor and outdoor gathering areas for private meetings all the way up to the whole community? Each person fills a role that benefits the Village? Those are all characteristics of both Rachel Carson Ecovillage and the Blue Zone communities!
We want to get to know you better. If you are new to Rachel Carson Ecovillage, please come to one of our information sessions to meet some of us and learn more about our community. We still have homes available for purchase or rent and we’re groundbreaking this Spring! Even if now is not your season to make a move, we still want to get to know you.
Stay tuned for more articles from Rachel Carson Ecovillagers!
– Sarah Vick, Founding Member & future resident of RCE, March 29, 2023
The Book of Eels, Our Enduring Fascination
I was inspired by Rachel Carson’s interest in eels to listen to a fascinating book by the Swedish author Patrik Svensson, The Book of Eels. Patrik had grown up near what is called Sweden’s “Eel Coast” which borders the Baltic Sea. Throughout much of his childhood, he fished for them with his father in the streams near their house. The book has a compelling structure, one that alternates between the story of Patrik’s life fishing for eels with his father and a detailed account of the growth over thousands of years of mankind’s understanding of the mysterious eel.
Eels arrive in the coastal waters of Europe and America as small nearly transparent finger-length “glass eels”. Then as they swim inland up streams and into lakes, they become muscular, develop fins and for the first time have color. These so-called “yellow eels” can spend up to 50 years living in inland waters. Then for reasons scientists still do not entirely understand, they leave continental waters and journey out to sea. Along the way they become, “silver eels” and develop mature sex organs, but where do they come from and where do they go?
It puzzled Aristotle. He believed they sprang from mud. Others have supposed they were hermaphrodite. Freud’s first scientific study was undertaken to find the eels’ penis. He failed. It was only in 1920s after a 20-year-long research by the Danish biologist Johannes Schmidt that the spawning ground of the eel was found in the western Atlantic, the Sargasso Sea.
I would urge anyone searching for an understanding of what may have inspired Rachel Carson to devote so much of her life to study of the sea to read this book.
–Doug Cooper, Founding member and future resident of RCE, March 20, 2023
A Short History of Composting in the United States
I recently joined a composting service where I live in Tennessee.
Composting is fundamental to sustainability. Organic waste is returned to the soil to nourish plants which in turn produce useful things such as food, clothing, and more organic waste in a continuous cycle.
Composting is as old as agriculture. It would not have taken long for early farmers to realize that manure helped plants grow. The concept first appears in the written historical record around 2300 BCE in the Mesopotamian Valley. Some form of composting was surely practiced by most farming cultures throughout history.
Early settlers in the English territories in America found abundant fertile land for farming. Replenishing the organic matter in the soil was hard work and not considered necessary. Eventually in the eastern states, interest in composting grew as the soil wore out, the urban population increased, and new land was no longer available for clearing. Organic waste was collected from urban areas and turned into fertilizer on local farms.
By the late 19th century, collecting organic waste and transporting it to farms was no longer practical in many areas, and farmers gradually turned to chemical fertilizers. By 1840, scientists in Europe had discovered that plants didn’t need dirt in order to grow—just a few nutrients, primarily nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
During World War I, nitrogen was produced in large quantities for use in weapons. After the war, nitrogen producers found a new market for nitrogen as fertilizer. In the short term, the use of chemical fertilizers alleviated food shortages, but led to damaged soil structure, soil erosion, and contributed to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
In the 1920s, scientists began to seriously study composting as a way to preserve soil and increase yields. They recognized the importance of organic matter to the health of both soil and plants. They began to understand the complexity of soil, its structure, and the organisms that live in it. The concept of organic agriculture was born.
After World War II there was a shift back to chemical fertilizers, along with the increased use of pesticides and herbicides. It is tempting to blame the chemical companies, but the reasons are more complex. Composting was hard work and most attempts at mechanization and large-scale composting had failed. Local governments were not interested in funding a semi-commercial industry. Chemicals were inexpensive. The mechanization of farming and larger, more specialized farms meant that there was less organic matter available for composting.
Today composting services like the one I joined are becoming more common. Landfill space has become more expensive and harder to find so local governments are looking for other options for waste disposal. Some governments are also trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Removing organic matter from landfills, where it produces large amounts of methane, is a good way to meet these goals. Increasing costs of chemical fertilizer and interest in local sustainable agriculture has created a market for compost.
Figuring out ways to collect organic waste and compost it on a large scale is a complex problem. It is nice to know that some people are trying to figure it out.
For an excellent article on this subject, see, Blum, Barton. “Composting and the Roots of Sustainable Agriculture.” Agricultural History 66.2 (1992): 171–188. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3743852
Sally C. – Founding Member and future resident of RCE, March 12, 2023
Adventures in Foraging
My first ventures into foraging—the practice of gathering wild plants that’s becoming more popular as a sustainable (and free) way to source hyperlocal food—were accidental. As a kid spending lazy summers outdoors, my best friend taught us we could eat the flowers from the white clover plants that sprouted in our backyards. My sister and I didn’t believe her, until she popped one in her mouth. Impressed, we followed suit (much to the dismay of our mom who worried we’d get sick). The small flower didn’t taste like much to my elementary-school palate, and I soon forgot about the edible weeds out back.
The second foraging experience was less fruitful than the first. I had seen an ad for a free “Mushroom Mania” class in the park promising we’d learn about local mushroom hunting and “taste the end result of some delicious wild mushrooms.” Excited for what I thought would be an indoor presentation and cooking demonstration turned out to be a hike through the steep, muddy hillside forest in pouring rain. We stood shivering while the leader, sporting a long trench coat covered in dozens of pockets, bent over various fungi with a magnifying glass, conferring with the more experienced mycologists in the group and muttering about each mushroom’s identifying characteristics and how exactly you would die if you ate a poisonous variety by mistake. Needless to say, no cooking took place that day and we left cold, wet, and hungry. While it wasn’t the tasty experience I’d anticipated, the beginners like me did depart with the realization that it would take years of careful study before any of us would be able to safely identify and eat any fungus we found.
Fast forward several years to early 2020. It was spring, and like everyone else during the COVID-19 lockdowns, I suddenly found myself grounded for the foreseeable future with no events and places to be, the whole world on pause. I found the time to slow down and observe what was around me; small things like the weather and the slow change of seasons became noticeable. I paid attention to the land. Instead of the usual outings driving miles by car, I walked daily around my neighborhood. Being on foot, I was much closer to nature than I had been since childhood, and that spring I began to notice how many different plants there were in just a small area—and I could identify almost none of them. Around this time, the grocery stores were chaos: empty shelves and fights over TP. I wondered how people lived before supermarkets existed. I loved to garden, but it was too early in the season.
Somehow, this all led to foraging. I stumbled upon an article about Alexis Nicole Nelson, who goes by the alias Black Forager on social media. Her videos about finding and eating wild edible plants are informative, goofy, and fun (she ends every video with the line “Happy snacking—don’t die!”); the recipes looked delicious; and she showed a real respect and appreciation for the plants and land. I was ready to dive in. Armed with several books on the topic, plant identifying apps, and curiosity, I ventured out.
Over time I learned the basic precautions—avoid the neighbors’ pesticide-sprayed lawns, make sure you have permission to forage on the land you’re on, don’t eat anything close to a road, and not to trust anything unless you verified it in at least three separate sources (and one of them preferably a more experienced forager). Even after learning about wild edibles from experienced botanists, I still only eat a few plants I am 100% certain of. Most importantly, I learned the golden rule of foraging: not to overharvest, particularly rare or endangered plants. With so much greenspace in decline from human activities, it’s important to leave enough to ensure the native plants are able to sustain themselves. When in doubt, leave it be! Edible invasive species, on the other hand, tend to be fair game to take as many as you please.
For me, foraging is a nice way to interact with the outdoors, and it’s amazing to know that a free salad is waiting just outside the backdoor, no trip to the grocery store needed. As I write this in the final days of February, I am grateful that I can experience the planet in this new way—and that I was able to hop outside for some hairy bittercress (it’s tastier than it sounds, I promise) when I ran out of bagged spinach midway through cooking. I can’t wait to see what we cook up at RCE!
-Elizabeth R., Founding Member and future resident of RCE, March 3, 2023
Wendell Berry and the Meaning of Work
I have been spending several days with the author, Wendell Berry, by listening to a book about him by Ragan Sutterfield. It’s entitled Wendell Berry and the Given Life, and it has opened up aspects of Berry’s life I had not previously known. In his novels I have come to appreciate the strong sense of place that emerges in his characters’ lives set in a fictional Kentucky town he names Port William. But I was unaware of the depth of Berry’s religious conviction: how much of his writing has scriptural roots. Though not a regular church goer, he keeps the sabbath, and he uses those days to write what he calls “sabbath poems”.
There is a passage in Chapter 6 that has a particular resonance for me as I imagine our future life at RCE. The author describes Berry’s admiration for an Amish farmer/bishop named David Kline from Fredericksburg, Ohio. In that Amish community, whenever a new mechanical device becomes available, say a new thresher, then the community comes together to discuss its usefulness to the community, not in terms of whether it will make their lives as farmers easier, but in view of how it will add to or take away from the meaning of the community’s work together. For Berry work itself is a shared communal sacrament.
– Doug Cooper, Founding member and future resident of RCE, February 14, 2023
“Digging in” to Land Management
An opportunity to live in a community where I can know and be closely connected to my neighbors, as well as to the beauty and wonders of nature? …where we can keep learning, share good times, and work together? …where we will model sustainable design and practices and have a positive influence on our natural and human world…? Count me in!
It was inevitable that, as an environmental educator and “nature geek,” I’d want to join a planning group whose focus is on environmental stewardship, including land management. Along with other members of our Eco-Resources group, I have found myself already connecting very tangibly to the land that we will soon live on and care for.
The Eco-Resources Group has helped to complete our community handbook by writing or reviewing policies related to individual gardens and yards; waste, recycling and composting; toxic chemicals; animals, fences, and lighting. Starting with understanding plans developed by our professional design team, the group is learning about and looking closely at our landscape management goals, strategies for achieving them, and the work that lies ahead. Our Land Management Guide, created in consultation with Fourth River Workers Guild, provides guidance for making decisions and will be used to record and retrieve information related to caring for the land in the future.
Even before our homes are built, our relationships to the landscape and to one another are being forged and strengthened through learning about our ecological design approach, exploring the meadow and nearby forests, and actively working on management tasks. We’ve already gotten our hands dirty! With shovels, loppers, and hand saws, in April 2022, we tackled the clearing of aggressive vines and shrubs which crowded and threatened the vitality of mature trees near our proposed parking area along the southern border of the ecovillage. In June, with the help of Fourth River Workers Guild staff, member-volunteers planted 49 native trees to enhance the buffer zone in that area. Three additional work sessions during the growing season found us zealously cutting back patches of non-native, invasive, Japanese knotweed. It was heartening in late summer to see native New York ironweed emerge and bloom from an area where we had worked. During the months ahead we will continue to control new growth, prevent further spreading, and get ahead of other invasives.
Are we experts? Nope. Will our decisions and efforts always turn out as we had expected? Likely not. Will we need to make changes to our habits and our strategies? Yes, as we continue the process of living and growing within our community and our environment, monitoring and evaluating what happens to our landscape as a result of our presence and throughout the seasons. We have begun by learning from the consultants and advisors on our design team. We are committed to careful observation, respectful consideration of ideas, increasing our knowledge with help from science-based resources and from nature herself, adapting our efforts, and “digging in” to work together, as we continue our journey toward living in harmony with the earth and all beings with whom we share it.
– Becky Lubold, founding member and future resident of RCE – February 2, 2023
The Rachel Carson EcoVillage (RCE) is a community whose values implore us to listen. We must listen to the planet, and we must listen to each other. Our identity as an ecovillage commits us to being attentive to the voices of the Earth and to apply regenerative design principles that promote non-extractive regrowth and healing. Sociocracy guides our community’s decision-making and is also a regenerative system. It commits us to ensuring all voices of our members are heard and promotes the healing of our society.
These are the key values that brought Melvin and me to RCE. We have committed ourselves to the healing of our planet and to the healing of the bonds that connect its people. If you’re looking for a community that shares these commitments, then we invite you to join us. If you’re already members, we are delighted that you’re here with us!
It sounds like a simple request, doesn’t it? Just listen. Just let the planet and its people be heard. Just let our community members be heard. Just learn regenerative design and principles of sustainability and apply them. Just learn sociocracy and apply it!
Of course, it’s not that simple. It takes a tremendous amount of work to learn all of that and apply it. Listening, though, really is the key. A practice as simple as doing rounds can help give a voice to everyone in a circle, but it can take weeks or months to see the value of applying this technique and committing to use it consistently—indeed because it’s the opposite of the behavior exemplified in traditional meetings and in everyday conversations!
It’s important to be intentional about it. We should try to listen mindfully. This means listening for the meaning and feeling in our conversation partner’s words, and even noticing what is not said. It’s about carefully giving space to each other and to the planet. It’s about being active consumers of the data generated by science, which gives voice to the needs of our planet—and, often, this too is the opposite of what we’ve been taught to do. We can no longer just take whatever we think we need from the planet without considering the consequences.
The trauma of the systems we’ve experienced in the past have created much distrust of any new system that promises to fix the world’s problems. Those same traumatic teachings have encouraged us to put efficiency over people. We’re taught that productivity is more valued than allowing feelings to be heard and the needs of people to be met.
It’s about unlearning those patterns and habits, and one way to do that is to apply structured systems that encourage new patterns and new habits to emerge. On its face, a new practice like doing a round in a meeting can seem inefficient and slow, but, in reality, it leads to faster and more effective decisions because it eliminates the chaos of cross-talk that drowns voices and impedes progress.
We will have to re-teach ourselves to listen with intention. We must undo the violent communication patterns that permeate our society. We have to slow down, be present, and give ourselves the space to allow that re-learning to happen. We have to find the patience to adopt new systems, like non-violent communication and sociocracy, that are designed to help us practice new patterns of behavior that support listening—that intentionally support hearing—hearing both the needs of the planet and the needs of one another.
– Kelly L., founding member & future resident of Rachel Carson Ecovillage – January 11, 2023
This piece of my New Year inspiration is shared from the We’Moon 2023 calendar.
Designing and manifesting a kinder and more mutually supportive community that honors the Land is a challenge we are sharing. We share the risk. Taking that risk requires courage. We recognize that humankind reaches its higher potential through collaboration and cooperation. We recognize that being good stewards of our precious planet is paramount to our own survival and the ecosystems that define its balance and its resources.
Given our current divisive culture, our best contribution to change is modeling an alternative path. Good intentions and Hope is what carry us forward. Every members’ courage and willingness to take risks is valued toward making this community a reality. Thank you for showing up! Blessings to all.
– Monay Waters, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – January 11, 2023
Cold winter night
huddled in blankets
we listen to the howling wind
and count the days til Spring.
But at moonrise
window ice
transforms itself
into a spidery
network
capturing moonlight
and the moon itself
in its web.
We stare, transfixed
at the shimmering light
cease our counting
and toss off our blankets
warmed by the season’s magic.
– Poem by member and future resident of RCE Judy Trupin, photo by Deborah Trupin – December 23, 2022
The Holidays and Diversity and Sustainability
Since RCE is a community which values diversity, I thought it would be good to highlight the three major holidays that occur in December:
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season organized around it.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which this year occurs from December 18-26, The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or hanukkiah. Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods.
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African-American culture from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a communal feast called Karamu, usually on the sixth day. It was created by activist Maulana Karenga, based on African harvest festival traditions from various parts of West and Southeast Africa. Kwanzaa was first celebrated in 1966.
As we are also a community devoted to sustainability, I am listing some places for purchasing gifts.
Thrift Stores (Pittsburgh has some of the best; there is a Goodwill very close to RCE) Look for Goodwill and Veterans Thrift Stores online.
Some others are:
Repurposed – McKnight Rd. and Cranberry ( your purchases here support efforts to assist individuals who are victims of human trafficking) They have great holiday decorations, housewares, toys, books, CDs, and clothing – Thursday is Senior Citizen Day – 20% off
Treasure House – McKnight Rd. has great womens’ clothes and even a bridal gallery
Libraries’ Book Stores – (I visit these all year long for birthday and Christmas gifts)
Half-Price Books – McKnight Rd. has a large variety of books at half price.
Olive Branch – Wexford
10,000 Villages – Squirrel Hill
You can also give your leftover ribbons and wrappings and all kinds of other things, ie material ends, to The Center for Creative Reuse on Lexington Ave. in Point Breeze
– Judy Robertson, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – December 12, 2022
Gratitude and gifts
As I write this, we are in the month of November in the week leading up to Thanksgiving… a time in our country to reflect on all we are thankful for, a time to count our blessings. As November ends, we head into December, which has become the month of gift-giving, begun I suppose as part of the “Santa Claus” world that grew around Christmas but has expanded to touch nearly all in our country.
Gratitude and gift…they go hand in hand; as we receive gifts we feel gratitude.
How else might we perceive and experience gratitude, for it is said that a strong sense of gratitude leads to greater life satisfaction, a more meaningful life and lower levels of anxiety and depression.
Instruction on gratitude is found in many religions and cultures.
In the Bible the disciple Paul instructs, “in everything give thanks”, meaning that from our limited perspective it is not possible to know the outcome of any event. What can seem unfortunate at first may turn out to be an unforeseen blessing. Buddha called it “gladdening the heart” to reflect on the series of circumstances that has led to where one is in life, and a Sufi story reminds us to not be too quick to judge events in our lives as negative even when they appear so…
the very old Sufi story tells of a man whose son captured a strong, beautiful, wild horse, and all the neighbors told the man how fortunate he was. The man patiently replied, “We will see.” One day the horse threw the man’s son who broke his leg, and all the neighbors told the man how cursed he was that the son had ever found the horse. Again the man answered, “We will see.”
Soon after the son broke his leg, soldiers came to the village and took away all the able-bodied young men, but the son was spared. When the man’s friends told him how lucky the broken leg was, the man would only say, “We will see.”
Gratitude for participating in the mystery of life is like this.
– Philip Moffitt, Yoga Journal, “Selfless Gratitude“
The practice of gratitude is not in any way a denial of life’s difficulties. Nor does it deny the reality that we will each die. Rather, gratitude practice is useful because it turns the mind in such a way that it enables us to live into life. Having access to the joy and wonderment of life is the antidote to feelings of scarcity and loss. It allows us to meet life’s difficulties with an open heart, to simply meet life in each moment as it rises.
The Indigenous culture of the Anishinabekwe people from which Robin Wall Kimmerer comes is a culture of gratitude and it is gratitude that forms their relationship with the living earth. In her book, Braiding Sweetgrass she writes that “One Bowl, One Spoon” is the teaching that all the gifts of the earth are in One Bowl, all to be shared from a single spoon, a culture of abundance and enough for all, unlike the culture of scarcity which is promoted by the white man’s economy that destroys the earth to “line the pockets of the greedy”, an economy that she describes as stacked against life not aligned with it.
Robin also describes the stories of her culture that lead her to see all things as “gifts” and to feel gratitude for each. What if we saw all that we have and use and experience in our life as a gift, how expansive would our gratitude be?
The water we drink, the grain we eat, the sun that shines and the rain that falls…all gifts that we can give thanks and feel gratitude for. Even the laptop on which I write this is a gift…the metals from the earth that were used to manufacture it, the designing and planning of individuals who created it, the lead and wood in the pencil with which I have written a note….each a gift for which I can feel gratitude.
This attitude of all things being gifts from the earth to us can lead to what she describes as a culture of gratitude, and it is gratitude that forms the relationship of the Anishinabekwe people with the earth.
How might each of our lives be different and our culture and world be transformed if we saw all things as gifts, experiencing gratitude for everything in all we do?
May you see all in your life as gifts and may gratitude multiply within you…..
– Submitted by Rachel Carson EcoVillage member Sherry Geis, November 28
Rachel Carson on the Biological Sciences
A selection from: LOST WOODS, The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, edited and with an introduction by Linda Lear, Beacon Press, Boston, 1998. (pages 164-167)
The following selection is from Carson’s introduction to a bibliography on the biological sciences that she wrote for GOOD READING, a reference book sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English published in 1956. It helps us to understand her feelings about the biological sciences and man’s place in their study. Her insights are as relevant and important for today as they were then.
“THE SCOPE OF BIOLOGY can be truly defined only in broad terms as the history of the earth and all its life – the past, the present and the future. Any definition of lesser scope becomes narrow and academic and fails utterly to convey the majestic sweep of the subject in time and space, embracing all that has made man what he is, and holding a foretaste of what he may yet become. For For it has dawned upon us in these recent years of the maturing of our science that neither man nor any other living creature may be studied or comprehended apart from the world in which he lives; that such restricted studies as the classification of plants and animals or descriptions of their anatomy and physiology (upon which the early biologists necessarily focused their attention) are but one small facet of a subject so many-sided, so rich in beauty and fascination, and so filled with significance that no informed reader can neglect it.
In the truest sense, there is no separate literature of biology or of any science. Knowledge of the facts of science is not the prerogative of a small number of men, isolated in their laboratories, but belongs to all men, for the realities of science are the realities of life itself. We cannot understand the problems that concern us in this, our particular moment of time, unless we first understand our environment and the forces that have made us what we are, physically and mentally.
Biology deals with the living creatures of the living earth. Pleasure in color, form, and movement, awareness of the amazing diversity of life, and the enjoyment of natural beauty are part of man’s heritage as a living creature. Our first conscious acquaintance with the subject should come, if possible, through nature – in fields and forests and on the shore; secondarily and by way of amplification and verification we should then explore its laboratory aspects. Some of the most gifted and imaginative biologists have first approached their subject through the medium of sensory impression and emotional response. The most memorable writings – though they be addressed to the intellect – are rooted in man’s emotional reaction to that life stream of which he is a part. The writing of the great naturalists such as Hudson and Thoreau, most easily sampled in some of the excellent anthologies now available, has a valid place in one’s reading in the field of biology.
As the frontiers of science expand, there is inevitably an increasing trend toward specialization, in which all the mental faculties of a man or group of men are brought to bear upon a single aspect of some problem. But there is fortunately a counter tendency, which brings different specialists together to work in cooperation. Oceanographic expeditions commonly include biologists, chemists, physicists, geologists, and meteorologists, so diverse are the problems presented by one aspect of the earth’s surface. Atomic physicists, by discovering that radioactive elements in fossils and minerals disintegrate at a rate that may be determined, have provided biologists with a tool that has already revolutionized our concept of the age of the earth and permits a far more accurate approach than ever before to the problem of the evolution of man himself. Chemists and geneticists, by joining forces, seem to be solving the riddle of the gene and the actual means by which it produces hereditary characteristics.
Only within the 20th Century has biological thought been focused on ecology, or the relation of the living creature to its environment. Awareness of ecological relationships is – or should be – the basis of modern conservation programs, for it is useless to attempt to preserve a living species unless the kind of land or water it requires is also preserved. So delicately interwoven are the relationships that when we disturb one thread of the community fabric we alter it all – perhaps almost imperceptibly, perhaps so drastically that destruction follows.
If we have been slow to develop the general concept of ecology and conservation, we have been even more tardy in recognizing the facts of the ecology and conservation of man himself. We may hope that this will be the next major phase in the development of biology. Here and there awareness is growing that man, far from being the overlord of all creation, is himself part of nature, subject to the same cosmic forces that control all other life. Man’s future welfare and probably even his survival depend upon his learning to live in harmony, rather than in combat, with these forces. ”
–Submitted by Rachel Carson EcoVillage member Joan Schoff – November 22, 2022
Our Way of Community
In any intentional community there is a way in which the members of it design how to live together; most have mission/values statements and governing laws or guidelines to show to prospective members what to expect when considering applying to be a part of the organizations endeavor. At RCE, we have recently completed the first draft of our handbook and invite Inquirer’s (those interested in becoming a part of RCE) to have a look and get a sense of what kind of community we are. Our Way of Community
*Please direct any questions to rachelcarsonecovillage@gmail.com but also note that responses may take a few days to be sent depending on the influx of messages received.
Grace Astraea, Information Manager, Rachel Carson EcoVillage – October 29, 2022
On Sustainability
Here at Rachel Carson Ecovillage we are all about environmental sustainability. It’s our raison d’etre. It motivates us, guides us, and in return sustains us.
Sustainability pertains not only to our physical environment, but also to our effort to build and live in community. One of the greatest assets we have in doing that successfully is our decision making process, sociocracy . Sociocracy allows us to act by way of consent. No one gets outvoted. Proposals are discussed and evaluated until they are released from any objection, or withdrawn from consideration. The process that allows that to happen is “rounds”.
When a proposal is being considered for consent, every member of the decision making team, in turn, has an opportunity to have their questions and concerns voiced, their comments and opinions heard, and their consent given or objection made. If objections occur the process of rounds continues until those objections are resolved or the proposal is withdrawn. Until consent of all is obtained no action is taken.
The key to the success of that process is not only in its structure, but also in how it is employed. Non violent communication is the underpinning that allows sociocracy to function effectively. It’s like cooking with love. Everything tastes better.
Essential to communicating nonviolently is the realization and acceptance that the others involved in the conversation are as valuable as you. Because someone’s thinking different from yours, or doesn’t come to the same conclusions as yours doesn’t mean that they are unworthy, it simply means that they are not you. Those differences can be resolved when all realize and act with the knowledge that the issue, not the person, is where the focus needs to be.
Here at Rachel Carson Ecovillage we are all about environmental sustainability. It is our raison d’etre. It motivates us, guides us, and in return sustains us.
Dave Geis, Pioneer Equity Member of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – October 15, 2022
Rachel Carson and Eels
During her graduate work in Marine Biology at Johns Hopkins, Rachel Carson took particular interest in the migration of eels, writing an article about them for the Baltimore Sun in 1938. Later in two of her books, Under the Sea Wind and Journey to the Sea, she wrote about their lives in inland fresh waters and tidal estuaries before their final return to ocean waters.
The life cycle of eels that so fascinated Carson is a mirror opposite to the life cycle of Salmon. Both American and European eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea, an area of the Atlantic Ocean that lies between ocean currents. It has a circular rotation and tends to accumulate a kind of brownish seaweed called Sargassum, hence its name. Eels begin their journey to the land as larvae. Then, as they approach tidal estuaries, they morph into a transparent form called glass eels and finally take on their long muscular form upon entering the freshwater ponds where they spend their adult lives as carnivores. Some live as many as 50 years. But then as their lives near an end, they begin a long migration back to the ocean from which they came, and, during that journey, their bodies transform once again, developing the reproductive organs they need to spawn. Upon reaching the Sargasso Sea, they spawn and die.
My sources for this article are blogs written by Kendall Jefferys, a Rachel Carson Scholar at Duke University, and another by Jim Kaufmann, a Pennsylvania Forests Projects Coordinator, written for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
Doug Cooper, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – September 20, 2022
Farewell to Queen Elizabeth
As much as any American citizen can feel a sense of connectedness to Britain’s royalty, to me Queen Elizabeth was my queen. She ascended to the throne the year I was born, and I’m sure there are many others in our community who have known only Elizabeth as Britain’s queen. This morning I took time to ‘attend’ the Queen’s service at Westminster Hall.
The pageantry was of course remarkable. The view of the royal standard draped coffin pulled by the team of black horses along Whitehall accompanied by the entourage of rows and rows of her red-coated honor guard was unforgettable. And it was striking to see the British royal crown set onto her coffin, which not only didn’t slide off but was in full view of thousands who had gathered along the path of the procession. It struck me that, as archaic as we might think these 1200 year old traditions are, it was an extraordinary display of civility.
Of course, we are more likely to have heard about the royal family’s dysfunctions, snobbishness, and downright bigotry. As a ruling family, they could have been better role models. But Queen Elizabeth was steadfast in fulfilling her duties to her country for seventy years. She was respected by millions of British citizens as well as by others around the world.
We in Pittsburgh have a relationship with Britain’s new king, King Charles III, who visited us as the Honorary Chair of the Remaking Cities Conference in 1988. In opening the conference with the keynote address, he spoke of his work to create communities in harmony with their human and natural surroundings. It was an honor to share the stage with him, and I look forward to his continuing influence toward more beautiful, caring, and harmonious community design.
The celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s life and her reign is a moment to consider the significance of the connections of trust and respect that are the signs of lives well-lived and the marks of a community that shares a commitment to peace and good governance. I have lots of things that have to get done today, but taking time to pay my small respects to the Queen reminds me of the real reasons we are working so hard to create a good life together.
– Stefani Danes, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – September 2022
More from Cid’s year with a nature preserve
For those just joining on the adventure of our member Cid, the offering is divided throughout the seasons and here’s the premise:
I recognize that the land I occupy was taken from the Ho-Chunk Nation, who have called the land Teejop (day-JOPE) since time immemorial. I offer this statement as a way to acknowledge native peoples and their histories and relationships with the land. I also acknowledge that I can’t reproduce, nor even understand, the quality of relationships with land that the native peoples had. However, I can build my own understanding and relationship with the local land.
How do I get to know, and develop a relationship with land? Land that doesn’t ‘belong’ to me, but land that is public and shared enough so that I am one of many participants in its space. To try, in 2008-2009 I created a project to spend a year making regular visits to a local nature preserve, which consists of about 300 acres along a lakeshore.
The Euro-American settlers who came to this area in the mid 1800s found existing land cover systems primarily of oak savannah, forest, wetland, and prairie. The preserve is located within an urban area and now retains, or has recreated, similar landcover of forests, prairies, and wetlands. In addition the land now accommodates a variety of human activities, with recreational trails, fire circles, wood-fired kilns, and community gardens.
For the year, I made weekly visits to the land, to be with it, get to know it, note the variety of uses it held, and to witness the changing seasons. I started by introducing myself and stating my intentions, that I wanted to spend time exploring and getting to know the land and what it held. I brought a camera, to document my experience with place, and capture anything that caught my attention.
This wasn’t a pilgrimage; I had no destination. It was an embodied practice, an ongoing experience between myself and the land. What I learned — there’s a lot to see if I look, and the land is ever changing yet holds traces of the past.
Summer:
Summer Solstice was the best! I was so enamored with the spring equinox sunrise and being in the line of the first sunlight coming over the water that I wanted to repeat and build on the experience for the solstice.
I decided to bring the sunrise to more areas of the preserve. I brought a jar of water from the marsh to accompany me with the sunrise, and then I would take the water and walk more of the preserve, pouring small libations of the solstice water as I went.
From a geographic position, the best spot to catch the light of the summer sun would be from the tip of the peninsula that extended into the lake. I made my way in the dark through the length of the peninsula and down a short steep, rocky hillside to the water’s edge.
The sunrise was spectacular with shades of reds, oranges, purples, and blues peeking through the clouds and reflecting in the lake. My jar of marsh water was illuminated by the rays as the sun rose. I gave the sun-kissed water back to the land, returning some to the marsh, and distributing the rest as I walked the trails. Summer continued on with growth and greenery.
One of my goals for my year on the land was to observe and feel for when the seasons changed, not only for when the calendar indicated seasons, but for when the land looked and felt different.
By late July, summer on the land felt like a piece of overripe fruit. The vegetation was thick, encroaching over paths in places, and the prairie turned color from greens to greens deeply flecked with yellow. Like the few leaves that were turning brown on the edges, it felt as though summer had turned.
Cid Freitag, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – August 28, 2022
RCE and Dragon Boat Racing Make a Perfect Match!
Imagine 20 athletes paddling in unison to a drumbeat, spear-headed by the barked commands of a standing steersperson. Now imagine four, five, or even eight long dragon boats poised at the starting line to burst ahead at the sound of the horn! Feel the excitement? Racing in a dragon boat is an unforgettable experience. All the intensity and accomplishment of a runner’s race along with the confidence that you
don’t have to do it on your own!
There’s a lot of exciting things to say about dragon boating, which is one of the oldest and also fastest growing sports in the world. As we look forward to racing at the Pittsburgh Dragon Boat Festival on September 24, I’ve been thinking about the great fit between racing on a dragon boat team and building
our community.
First, it’s for everyone! Paddling, like a community, is a sport for all ages! It takes no credentials or expertise. All that’s needed is a desire to connect and to contribute. Everybody starts as a beginner in dragon boating—after all, who’s even heard of it before? At RCE, we all start with Sociocracy 101. With some experience, we can help newcomers join in. And the differences among us—in age, backgrounds,
chromosomes, and interests—make our team and community stronger and more resilient.
Second, it take a team! It was Dave Geis who gave us the wise saying, “It takes a village to create a village.” Whether it’s 20 paddlers or 4 planning groups, we couldn’t hope to get to the finish line without a great team and a lot of teamwork. And it’s knowing that our bench mate or our buddy is putting their effort into the work that inspires us all to give it just a little bit more. Sharing the challenges–whether it’s the Board of Supervisors or a bad current–and the fun times–the parties and trophies—it all brings us together. And what makes it work for a team or a community is knowing we can trust each other.
Third, it takes practice! Teams and communities both take time to bring into being, and there’s no end to ‘bringing into being’. For all of us, we’re learning as we go–how to ‘move’ the water with our paddle or how to shape a proposal toward consent. There’s a lot of hard work, and sometimes it’s hard to see past the drills in the boat or the decisions that sometimes seem endless! Our commitment to keep practicing—good days and bad—is what gets us there. And while we’re team-building and community-building, we’re fundamentally trust-building, which makes all of our lives better.
Fourth, it’s all about the friends! I have so many great memories of team dinners and end-of-race celebrations, and the beginning of many more–our tree-planting/intention-planting ceremony, our solstice celebrations and summer picnics. Those are moments when we appreciate that while we’ve all been intensely and intentionally focused on ‘the prize’, what we’ve gained is so much more valuable—turning a zoom acquaintance into shared hikes and prospective neighbors into friends we care about, discovering our shared enjoyment of singing or drumming and the best remedies for sore muscles and
blistered fingers, and feeling grateful for the friends who make life better.
-Stefani Danes, future resident of RCE – August 2022
On ‘Our Way Of Community‘ – August 5, 2022
As the title of the almost-completed and forthcoming Community Handbook for RCE, ‘Our Way Of Community’ will serve as a resource and reference tool to help guide responsibilities, procedures and suggested best practices within the EcoVillage. Its design and intent is to hopefully enhance the sense of respect, trust, safety, belonging and caring that is so important to the community members.
This enormous project, the ‘baby’ of the Community Life and Governance (CLG) Planning Group, has required more than a year’s worth of meetings and endless hours of research and thoughtful deliberation in an attempt to distill an abundance of information on a variety of topics down into a workable tool of navigation.
For handbook topics that cross over into more than one clear area of domain, the CLG Planning Group (a resourceful, talented, and ever-mindful group of 8-10 core members) reached across borders in order to coordinate and collaborate input and assistance with the other appropriate Planning Groups, Subgroups, and Helping Groups. It has evolved into a multi-group effort.
As the handbook project has gone through various levels of reviews and edits, it is now nearing completion enough to warrant an initial release. While some topics are of such a nature that they cannot be fully determined until after the community buildings are built and we have moved in, the designation ‘TBD’ (to be determined) will be indicated, with the intent to be addressed at a future date.
The design of the handbook is to be a living digital document with scheduled reviews and applicable edits that will take place with community input. Additionally, it will contain cross-references and pertinent functioning-links to provide additional reference and resource in a user-friendly way.
As a fellow member of the CLG Planning Group, in my opinion, this project has helped to provide a more tangible overview of our vision of creating a strong sense of community and a culture of inclusiveness, responsibility, and respect.
-Trish Miller
Junior Pioneer Equity memberships have arrived!
Rachel Carson EcoVillage has established a new equity membership type, Junior Pioneer to make it easier for members to progress to Pioneer. The advanced deposit required of Junior Pioneers is $22,500, half of the deposit required of Pioneers.
Now, there are four equity membership types: Pathfinder, Junior Pioneer, Pioneer and Non-owner Resident.
We currently have 15 Pioneer member households and 6 Pathfinder member households. Each household counts as one member. We’re planning to build 35 units. Three units will be available to users for when the project has no risk with completion so we need 11 more equity members.
Pioneer and Junior Pioneer advance deposits are paying for pre-construction costs such as survey, testing, design and engineering, public agency approvals, and legal and financing costs. Pioneer advance deposits have been sufficient to cover these costs throughout the project and are projected to be sufficient through August. Beginning in September, we will need more Pioneer or Junior Pioneer members to continue. Pioneer and Junior Pioneer advance deposits are at risk if the project does not come to fruition. Every new Pioneer or Junior Pioneer reduces that risk.
Pathfinder members deposit $15,000. The Pathfinder’s advance deposit applies to the purchase of the household’s unit. It is not at risk. During the development phase which is planned to be complete in the next few months, Pathfinder deposits may be used by the RCE LLC to cover a short-term cash flow shortage, but once construction starts, it will be applied in full to the Pathfinder’s unit or will be refunded in full should the member household need to withdraw from the project or the project is terminated prior to unit selection.
RCE established the Junior Pioneer membership level to provide a way to become a Pioneer without having to make the full $45,000 deposit. If a Pathfinder becomes a Junior Pioneer, their risk exposure is half as much as the Pioneers’ risk exposure. The risk of the project not coming to fruition is also reduced as each Pathfinder becomes a Junior Pioneer or Pioneer. As a Pathfinder gains confidence that the risk is not as much as earlier, it is easy for Pathfinders to become Junior Pioneers or Pioneers.
The following table compares the salient membership attributes by member type.
| Type | Explorer | Pathfinder | Junior Pioneer | Pioneer |
| Equity member | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Member LLC | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advance deposit requirement | N/A | $15,000 | $22,500 | $45,000 |
| Advance deposit at risk | N/A | No | Yes | Yes |
| Unit selection order in queue | None | 3rd | 2nd | 1st |
| Planning Group Participation | Full | Full | Full | Full |
A Non-Owner Resident has the same role and responsibilities as other Equity members, with the exception of the financial obligations. The Non-Owner Resident must have an agreement with the Owner of their shared unit regarding the terms of residency. Rachel Carson EcoVillage supports house sharing but does not seek to determine in any way the terms of such relationships.
We had planned to begin construction this fall. The RCE LLC will need a construction loan before construction can begin. We are anticipating that the banks will require a downpayment of 20-25% of the value of our units. Pioneers and Junior Pioneers are already members of the RCE LLC. The Pioneer and Junior Pioneer advance deposits will count as part of their down payments.
When Pathfinder members become Pioneer or Junior Pioneer members, they will become RCE LLC members. The LLC will own RCE housing units until purchased by members either with cash or through a mortgage. If a member needs a mortgage, they will only need a mortgage for the difference between the cost of their unit and what they’ve already invested (their advance deposit plus additional to reach 20-25% of the cost of their unit that the banks require for the construction loan). The following table is an example of what Pioneers, Junior Pioneers or Pathfinders would have to pay for a nominal $400,000 home.
| $400,000 | cost of unit | ||
| $100,000 | 25% down payment | ||
| Pioneer | Junior Pioneer | Pathfinder | |
| Advance deposit | $45,000 | $22,500 | $15,000 |
| Balance of downpayment | $55,000 | $77,500 | $85,000 |
| Mortgage value | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 |
One motivator for becoming a Pioneer early is to get the unit you want. When it comes to unit selection, Pioneers will have first choice then Junior Pioneers and then Pathfinders. Within each group, the order of the members in the queue is the order in which they joined that group.
– RCE Legal and Financial Planning Group, July 30 2022
On planning how to move forward in community
As an Explorer member of RCE (and one that helps to market across our various social media platforms), it’s always a pleasant surprise to get a Google alert email when anything that has Rachel Carson’s name in it pop up somewhere on the internet. In the most recent case, it was to notify me that an article from Trib Live had posted an article on Richland Township approving our plan for moving forward to build the long awaited ecovillage that Chatham University included in their original master plan.
So much of the news surrounding our project has been good and we are grateful for the conversations we’ve had with the surrounding residents of Eden Hall Campus and the relationships that have grown from working with so many different people and businesses that have been involved in helping make our vision that much closer to a reality.
We hope to see more families, individuals, couples and friends of all kinds make their way to RCE over the coming months, in whatever way works for them – ALL are welcome as we are a self selecting community so if you haven’t stopped by an introductory zoom or popped into one of our virtual happy hours or other events PLEASE DO, we’d love to meet you!
In community,
Grace Astraea – Information Manager, Rachel Carson EcoVillage
Notes from RCE’s Governance Group on sociocracy in community
GOVERNANCE MATTERS
Let’s say you find yourself in a new community with 55 other people, many of them unfamiliar to you. Like you, every one of those people has opinions, experiences, hopes, and concerns. How do you coordinate all the different perspectives? How do you get anything done?
The answer is governance.
Governance is how we make decisions, and sociocracy is our chosen form of governance at RCE because it promotes efficiency and fairness in equal measure. The Governance Group spends a lot of time thinking about sociocracy because it is one of our best tools for building a healthy community.
Here in GOVERNANCE MATTERS we will be sharing the ways sociocracy supports RCE’s vision, and we’ll be telling you about opportunities to discover and practice sociocracy.
Our next offering for the RCE community is a FACILITATOR & SCRIBE GATHERING on August 4th.
This will be a fun and friendly way for RCE role holders – and any RCE member interested in sociocracy – to share stories, advice, and questions about running our sociocratic meetings.
Loosely structured and casual, it’s a great way to connect with fellow RCEers.
Hoping to see you there!
In community, The Governance Group
On working the land at Rachel Carson EcoVillage
It’s hard to beat participating in an activity that both focuses on care of the earth and builds a sense of community among the participants! An activity that brought twelve individuals together on Saturday, June 4 at the site of the future RCE site did just that. The stated purpose was to continue to clear invasive plants from a section of the designated RCE space in anticipation of a rather large-scale tree-planting effort that is planned for the weekend of June 11 and 12 and beyond. The gathering on June 4th was excellent!
Set on what turned out to be a beautiful day weather-wise, the work effort enabled all of the participants to be good stewards of the earth; to learn more about invasive plants from member Becky Lubold, who is an environmental educator and who had helped to coordinate the event on behalf of the Eco Resources planning group; and to enable the area to become healthier and more attractive. We brought our own tools, worked individually or in small groups at whatever job and whatever pace was comfortable, took plenty of water breaks, and stopped at no later than the appointed time.
After nearly two years of pretty much a steady diet of gatherings via Zoom, participants welcomed the opportunity to come together in person. Helped along by friendly banter, it was wonderful to work together to achieve a common goal… and to admire the results! It’s amazing to realize how well we’ve all gotten to know one another despite not meeting in person; and it was an even better to contemplate a life of in-person interactions of all sorts in the not-too-distant future.
If you’re wondering what life in the RCE might be like, how you might help the earth, and what it means to build community, try coming out for one of the future work sessions. There’s lots to do—and you can have fun and feel good doing it with others at RCE!
Jill Brethauer, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – June 2022
Rachel Carson EcoVillage is dog friendly
Introducing Sagan, our youngest equity dog. Before you ask, he is named after my teenage crush, Carl Sagan. Sagan means “wise one” or ”sage”. He is going to be a genius. I am blind and my goal is to train him to be my guide dog. I know this sounds like a huge project, but the evolving community at Rachel Carson EcoVillage are obviously not afraid of that.
As I write this, he is 10 weeks old. By the time Rachel Carson EcoVillage is built, he will be close to a working guide for me if he does not outsmart me-first. He is a standard poodle which is at the top of the smart dog list second only to the Border Collie. I am counting on my ability to teach him faster than he trains me. When Rachel Carson EcoVillage is an actual community sometime next year, I hope to have the support of the community to help me put the finishing touches on his guide work. He will be the key to my independence on this next journey for my husband , Stu Bush and me.
Mel Scott, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – May 19, 2022
Following Rachel’s Footsteps: The Big Sippewissett Marsh
While she was still studying at John Hopkins, Rachel Carson spent a summer of study at The Marine Biological Institute in Woods Hole Massachusetts. This experience was formative in her lifelong study of the biology of the sea. One of the places that drew her interest in during first and then subsequent visits was Big Sippewisset Marsh, an extensive Cape Cod estuary on the border of Buzzards Bay north of Falmouth.
Thousands of years ago, when sea levels were lower, the area was home to white cedars. When the sea subsequently rose, a peat swamp developed as the base for the extensive (190 acre) tidal marsh of today. The name Sippewisset derives from the Wampanoag language and means, “little cove” or “little river.” The marsh is home to Terns, Laughing Gulls, and Osprey and numerous migratory birds. Stefani and I have visited it several times, because we have family living nearby, and we’ve paddled in kayaks with our children and their cousins deep into the marsh—the best way to see it. If you want to read about this marsh, there is an excellent book, Sippewissett or Life on a Salt Marsh by Tim Traver.
Doug Cooper, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – May 13, 2022
My year with a nature preserve (a 4 part series)
I recognize that the land I occupy was taken from the Ho-Chunk Nation, who have called the land Teejop (day-JOPE) since time immemorial. I offer this statement as a way to acknowledge native peoples and their histories and relationships with the land. I also acknowledge that I can’t reproduce, nor even understand, the quality of relationships with land that the native peoples had. However, I can build my own understanding and relationship with the local land.
How do I get to know, and develop a relationship with land? Land that doesn’t ‘belong’ to me, but land that is public and shared enough so that I am one of many participants in its space. To try, in 2008-2009 I created a project to spend a year making regular visits to a local nature preserve, which consists of about 300 acres along a lakeshore.
The Euro-American settlers who came to this area in the mid 1800s found existing land cover systems primarily of oak savannah, forest, wetland, and prairie. The preserve is located within an urban area and now retains, or has recreated, similar landcover of forests, prairies, and wetlands. In addition the land now accommodates a variety of human activities, with recreational trails, fire circles, wood-fired kilns, and community gardens.
For the year, I made weekly visits to the land, to be with it, get to know it, note the variety of uses it held, and to witness the changing seasons. I started by introducing myself and stating my intentions, that I wanted to spend time exploring and getting to know the land and what it held. I brought a camera, to document my experience with place, and capture anything that caught my attention.
This wasn’t a pilgrimage; I had no destination. It was an embodied practice, an ongoing experience between myself and the land. What I learned – there’s a lot to see if I look, and the land is ever changing yet holds traces of the past.
Spring:
The unofficial spring came quickly; by early March much of the snow had melted and the trails were a combination of mud and icy hard-packed snow. The early waves of migratory birds started to return. To mark the official start of spring I went out early to see the sunrise on the spring equinox. It was cold, to sit at the lakeshore in the dark and wait for the sun to come up. It was worth the effort, the sun came up and sent out a shaft of light across the thin layer of ice as if to promise that the ice would melt and spring would return.
One of my favorite aspects of spring on the preserve is that on May Day, a local group of Morris Dancers gathered before dawn to dance up the sun. The dancing successfully brought up the sun, and was followed by a Maypole. As the pole was being set up, a group of military cadets were out for a morning run, making a U-turn several feet away from the Maypole. It was a meeting of worlds. After the running cadets had passed through we unwound and rewound the Maypole, followed by a fire to drive winter away for the time being.
Spring continued, bringing ephemeral plants — May Apple, Trillium, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and small flowers I don’t know by name. I gained an appreciation for prairies and their wide variety of plants. I can identify only a few prairie plants by name, but I could recognize them by sight and watch their progression of growth over the weeks.
Cid Freitag, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – May 2, 2022
Good Friday wandering at the future site of Rachel Carson EcoVillage
After church on a beautiful Good Friday, it seemed time to wander the grounds of the future site of the ecovillage. Blue skis, warms temps and a soft breeze…as I hiked the meadows and woods of RCE, I was immersed in peace and beauty and gratitude…. for the beautiful day, for the land and for the opportunity to be part of a new community of amazing folks who care about each other and the environment.
The Eden Hall campus of Chatham University is so close to all the cultural opportunities that Pittsburgh offers but the woodlands and fields make it ideal for folks who love the outdoors. The meadows are perfect for cross country skiers, and the idea that residents will be able to ski out their back doors is remarkable. Residents of RCE will also be able to take advantage of campus amenities including a community bread oven, the kitchen lab, and concerts in the campus amphitheater. Community gardens, pool, intellectually stimulating environment-so many interesting and unique offerings unlike any other co-housing community in the country. And it’s here in Pittsburgh! I’m hopeful that next year at this time, RCE will be a reality. A reality that includes caring neighbors, sustainable new homes and a life that is energizing and vibrant. Count me in. – Dawn Tedrow- April 15, 2022
On sharing in the joy of our community resident art
A visit to the Concept Art Gallery on Braddock Ave. in the Regent Square area proved to be a very worthwhile trip. On Saturday, April 16 future Rachel Carson Ecovillage resident, Doug Cooper displayed a number of new pieces of artwork. Most folks familiar with Doug’s work expecting to see his unique blend of ‘perspective and charcoal’ would have been pleasantly surprised.
Doug’s display presented for the first time, anywhere (I think), his unique perspective presented in water color. My first thought when viewing this work was “Hey…Color! I didn’t know they had red and green charcoal!” Upon further inspection and with help from a docent, indicated it was water color I was seeing, a new arrow in Doug’s quiver. One room concentrates on Pittsburgh area scenes, while the upper floor of the gallery contains images of New York City. Doug indicated that he had plenty of photos to assist in this work. Those of you currently living in the Big Apple will feel a certain `tug’ when viewing these pieces. Not to hurry, the display is on until early June.
– Mark Emerson, future RCE resident – April 18, 2022
COVID-19 Adventures and Beyond! Hopes, Dreams, Challenges, Blessings, Patience, Resilience and the JOYS of living in community.
I invite you to sit in a comfortable position, take a few slow, deep breaths and listen to the sound of my voice …. Hold up! Wait! This isn’t a hypnotic induction! This is a true story of my “COVID-19 Adventures and Beyond! – Starting with my first Eden Hall Ecovillage meeting and moving through COVID-19 lockdowns, COVID-19 “social bubbles”, travel bans, “pivots”, Zoom-Zoom-Zoom, social isolation, uncertainty, blessings, travel, COVID-19 again, resilience, reconnection and finally landing in the Rachel Carson EcoVillage – the community of my dreams– Oh My!
I’ll get this adventure started by sharing memories of Saturday, February 29, 2020 – The first Eden Hall EcoVillage meeting that I attended at the Chatham University Eden Hall Campus followed by a tour of the proposed site. After living alone for 7 years – the last 5 in an apartment in the city of Pittsburgh, I felt hopeful that I finally had an answer to my dream to live in a community with people who value connections and have a desire to live with a “lighter footprint” on this one fragile and irreplaceable planet. At that first meeting I felt truly welcomed by all attending and by the end of the afternoon, I had connected with the group- with our shared values that strengthened as we worked together on our mission and vision statements.
Fast-forward just three weeks later on March 23, 2020 to the start of the Allegheny County “Stay at Home Order” – implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This was closely followed by a COVID-19 travel ban at the healthcare company where I provide team-based, community-based mental health and substance use disorder service interventions. With so many unknowns about the details of viral transmission I was advised to stay in a “social bubble” in order to stay healthy, which for me meant I would be isolating alone in my apartment in the city.
For the next 18 months, I was blessed to be able to “pivot” to zoom morning team meetings for work, meet with clients outside of their places of residence, spend time with family and friends in outside settings and, with the help of zoom meetings, the newly named Rachel Carson EcoVillage moved steadily through Start-up deep into the Planning and Development phases. Our membership was steadily growing and we were gradually getting to know each other as we sat in our zoom boxes, gazing straight ahead and repeatedly forgetting to “unmute” ourselves. We were building a community in the middle of a pandemic!
During the winter of 2020 -2021, I was definitely tempted to take a “quick break” to visit friends in Florida but resisted this temptation knowing that the pandemic would eventually lift and my accumulated vacation time could end up in a more meaningful opportunity. My patience paid off when the travel ban was lifted in the summer of 2021 and almost simultaneously that “more meaningful opportunity” landed in my email inbox. I was invited to attend a “30-day Community Life Campus experience” at Magilla, the spiritual ecocommunity that was part of the Arca Tentyris territory of Damanhur, Italy – a 47-year-old community seated in the foothills of the Alps in Northern Italy. What a blessing!
The invitation read:
“We want to offer you an unforgettable experience to discover new aspects of yourselves, of the others and how precious is becoming “we” through living, working, creating art, listening and sharing our diversity together!”
Fast-forward to September 15, 2021, on Day 1 of 30 I found myself immersed in an international group of 15 like minded people from Italy, Germany, Belgium, Costa Rica and The Netherlands ready to share an experience of a lifetime. (It’s safe to say that my brain was more than a little “toasty” on that first day and I was wondering how much “work” was ahead and if I were up to the physical labor part of the experience). Well COVID-19 took care of that need to have my own “COVID-19 pause/reset button” opportunity – Yup! You guessed it – after being “fully vaccinated” and spending 18 months doing everything I was advised to do to stay healthy – I started my dream Ecovillage Experience in “social isolation” with a mild case of COVID-19. Five days later I tested negative, fully rested, jet lag recovered and ready to immerse myself in the Ecovillage Community Life Campus experience.
The next 3 weeks were truly amazing and filled with activities designed to build our own Community Life Campus community, connect with the residents of the Magilla, Dendera, Casa del Lago and Porta della Luna community members (all part of the Arca Tentyris Territory of Damanhur) and deepen our connection with the beautiful natural mountain environment that was our playground.
Our community building activities included group walks through the sacred forests, hikes up steep mountain trails alongside beautiful waterfalls, group discussions about our own spiritual beliefs and practices, group art projects with natural materials (think plants, branches, rocks, flowers used to create your portrait), collective art projects, creating mandalas and sculptures that illustrate your individual gifts that you bring to the whole and fun food preparation and sharing meals which often included vegetables and fruits that we had harvested that morning!
We had daily opportunities to get to know our gracious hosts – the local residents of the villages and to learn about their way of life by sharing meals, being a part of their fall community events, sharing spiritual beliefs and practices, assisting with seasonal preparations for the winter including stacking wood, harvesting the potato crop, picking grapes, dates, fall fruits and clearing invasive plants. We learned about organic farming, aquaponic farming, land restoration, natural water purification and composting as well as learning about their solar and geothermal alternative energy production.
We toured bee hives and a honey producing factory, organic farms and extensive greenhouses, learned about their olive oil production factory and toured an amazing soap factory that produced body soap, laundry soap and cleaning products from the plants grown in the areas surrounding the factory (imagine watering your plants with the dirty, soapy water that you just used to mop your floors!)
Some of my favorite memories include touring the Temples of Humankind (a sacred space open to the world), walking through and just sitting in the sacred forests (just breathing with the trees and listening to their wisdom) and lying on the ancient Celtic rock formations near Magilla, under a star filled night sky, considering my place in the cosmos and just being…
Overall, the experience was truly life-changing and while I was immersed in the month long Community Life Campus experience, I felt authentically reconnected with community. I felt real JOY- a feeling that I hadn’t experienced since the start of the pandemic and which has persisted to this day (sometimes you’ll witness me lifting both arms to the sky and yelling “IT IS JOY!” –a practice I learned from our Damanhur sculpture artist).
My JOY stemmed from being a part of the experience of building individual relationships with the members of the Community Life Campus and immersing myself in the process that transformed the “I into We” – creating a community that truly was greater than the sum of the individual parts. That’s the beauty of building community.
Over those 30 days our community building processes mirrored those that created Damanhur 47 years ago when a group of about 20 unrelated individuals shared their ideas, values and unique gifts with each other and started the creation of a truly amazing community that today has members across the planet.
I returned to Pittsburgh with so much gratitude for everyone involved in creating the opportunity and for the friendships and memories that will last a lifetime. I returned with a renewed intention to live more sustainably (and even reciprocally) on this planet and with an even greater desire to live in community – the Rachel Carson EcoVillage community – the community of my dreams.
I invite you to join us as we continue to create our own Rachel Carson EcoVillage true story of Adventures and Beyond!
For more information on the Federation of Damanhur please visit https://Damanhur.org
– Brenda Freeman, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – April 8, 2022
On wind, flowers, snow and sun
March was her usual unpredictable self here in Pittsburgh…March 23-26 for our RCE Explorer members visiting from New York City and Santa Fe NM. From Thursday’s sun and warmth through Saturday’s rain and sleet and Sunday’s snow and wind, our visitors were intrepid!
Local members had the pleasure of their company on Mt. Washington overlooking the city, car tours of various neighborhoods with their unique personalities, and the Spring Flower Show at Phipps Conservatory. Afternoon tea at Dobra Tea, breakfast at Ritter’s Diner, lunches at Grant’s Bar and Phipps cafe, dinner at The Perch and another at Apteka took us around the world in our dining experiences. Tours of the Rachel Carson EcoVillage site at Chatham Eden Hall campus gave our out of state members a sense of the beauty of the area and where they will live as members of Rachel Carson Ecovillage community.
The highlight of the weekend for visitors and locals alike was a personal tour provided by Doug Cooper, RCE Pioneer equity member and creator of two murals at Carnegie Mellon University. The first mural portrays the history of Pittsburgh from 1945 through 1995, and the second is a collaboration with Stefani Danes, Pioneer equity member, quilt maker and project manager for the planning and construction of RCE. It creatively illustrates the construction and use of a building at the Tepper School of Business on the Carnegie Mellon University campus.
– Dave & Sherry Geis, future residents of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – April 1, 2022
Naming rights
One of the recent developments in our planning the community has been the necessity for naming two “streets” that will be a part of the ecovillage. So we’ve reached out to all our members for ideas and will be deciding (via our own variation of March Madness) between a bevy of suggestions we received over the last few days….wonder what we’ll ultimately decide on!
– March 25, 2022
On forgiveness, rowing and what it means to be in community.
I recently read an article in the New Yorker about Wendell Berry, the writer of numerous novels set in a small rural corner of Kentucky along the Ohio River where he continues to work the family farm where he grew up. Berry’s novels all contemplate the value of a life that is well-grounded in the land and the people where one lives. As such, his life and work offer a model for us at Rachel Carson EcoVillage because we aspire to something quite similar.
About Berry, whose views on politics are complex (I’d describe him as a conservative liberal and a liberal conservative), one section of the article stood out as particularly relevant to our use of sociocratic governance at RCE. It recounts one of Berry’s most difficult works, The Hidden Wound, a book that examines racism with utter honesty as he confronts the past of such controversial figures as Robert E. Lee and of his own family, who as farmers in the South had once owned slaves. In sum Berry wants readers to “hate the sins but love the sinner”. He writes of his own experience exchanging civil talk with supporters of Donald Trump at the local farm supply store, which he describes as the kind of tolerance necessary in a small town. He writes, “If two neighbors know that they seriously disagree, but that either of them, given even a small change of circumstances may desperately need the other, should they not keep between them a kind of pre-paid forgiveness?”
The article, entitled “Late Harvest” by Dorothy Wickenden, is in the February 28th issue of the New Yorker, and it’s well worth reading. Sociocracy exists to help govern exactly the kind of mutually dependent society that Berry describes in his books, one in which deep honesty, civility and mutual respect must always be present. At RCE, sociocracy provides a “safe space” for the exchange of different perspectives, and, as we have already experienced many times, it enables us to put our heads together to arrive at better decisions than any of us would on our own. We are a stronger community for our differences and political persuasions. We are, after all, all rowers in a very small boat.
– Doug Cooper, future resident of Rachel Carson EcoVillage – March 18, 2022
Active Hope
Hey folks! It’s been a wild couple of years since Rachel Carson EcoVillage got underway and we’re not showing any signs of slowing down. This is Grace, one of the Explorer members @ RCE and I’m helping one of the planning groups that I’m a part of to get more info about all of us (and what we’re doing!) to you on a more regular basis via this platform.
Each week different members from our various planning groups will contribute a post to share with the rest of the world RIGHT HERE, so if you want to keep up with us be sure to subscribe and you’ll be the first to know when there’s been new content added here!
The most recent development that the Community Life & Governance planning group has undertaken is the 7 week Active Hope course that’s being offered online. Well, ok, we actually start it tomorrow but, close enough! For those of you that haven’t heard about Active Hope (originally a book), the course is designed to strengthen your ability to make a difference in the world. One of the best parts about it is it’s also FREE!
I imagine some of my fellow planning group members will touch on this a bit more as we delve into ways to continue making a difference right here in Pittsburgh. Until next week – with love from RCE ❤️
*Update: If you’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to subscribe to this blog (because there’s no button yet to click on to do so ) I’m working on getting that integration to happen – technology is not kind to the impatient – and it should be here for you soon!
-March 11, 2022